Jesus is Still Working

God is doing something in the people of Oak city Church and it has been so amazing to hear the stories that people have been telling. The newly renovated and installed Expression Wall contains little snippets of upwards of 70 stories that were posted in just the past week. Incredible. To me, those “Expressions” are like monuments to things that God has done and is doing in our lives. They are things worth memorializing and the are stories worth telling. The church body is so encouraged when individual people stand up (or log in) and testify.

And then this past Sunday at our Sunday morning gathering, 12 or 13 people stood on stage and testified to the fact that God has been moving and doing downright miraculous things in their lives. Again, incredible. We are talking about marriages saved, addictions broken, calls to move overseas to spread the good news of the gospel. God providing new meaning. It’s amazing stuff.

But all of us have at least one great thing that God is doing in our lives. You just have to look for it. Maybe its as simple as God letting you see new beauty in a sunrise…and giving Him glory for it. Maybe God has given you and your spouse a new level of connection that you have never had before. Maybe you have been looking for how you can give God glory through your work and He has finally shown you how. Maybe you have been praying for an opportunity to invite someone you work with to church and God provided that opportunity…and made you bold enough to go through with the invitation! Maybe you are being reconciled with family members that you thought you would never speak to again. I could go on….

When we look for God, we see him. We are in a season as a church where it has not been hard to see God working and it’s exciting.

It occurs to me that this type of thing shouldn’t surprise us.

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So many of the amazing things that happen in the New Testament are recorded in the book of Acts. It’s in this book where the apostles, empowered by the Holy Spirit, take the good news of the gospel to the broader middle east..and further. There are numerous stories of healings, casting out demons, God providing in crazy ways, people being transported in the Spirit to far away places, thousands of people coming to know Jesus. Again, wild stuff. The apostles were not surprised that any of these things were happening. They had been with Jesus for three years. They had seen Him do the same things.

Acts starts with this verse:

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. (Acts 1:1-2 ESV)

….Jesus BEGAN to do…

When, in normal conversation, we say someone “began” to do something we are normally implying, unless we note an end point, that what they “began to do” is still going on. The book of Acts begins by mentioning the things that Jesus began to do while He was still here on earth. The implication is that Jesus, even though he is not here on earth at the moment, is still doing those things! He was doing them when He was here, He kept on doing them in them book of Acts and He has never stopped. He is doing them today.